


Torn Between These Pages

by JeziBelle



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Blackwatch, Gen, Junkrat has an emotion (and doesn't enjoy it), smol sassy McCree
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-15
Updated: 2017-01-15
Packaged: 2018-09-17 16:17:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9333056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JeziBelle/pseuds/JeziBelle
Summary: A small pile of assorted ficlets and scenes scattered throughout the Overwatch universe.No internal continuity unless specifically noted. Relationships and archive warnings will be tagged in each chapter.





	1. The New Guy (McCree & Reyes)

The raid is a bust at first; they just left one omnic and one damn _child_ to guard a weapons stash they clearly knew Overwatch was coming for. The strike team is still at their temporary base out in the ass end of the desert when Reyes plays him back the intercepted comm logs. _“Send Deadeye and the new guy back for the goods, they’re both dumb enough to try to fight for it, and we won’t miss either of ‘em if they fuck it up.”_

The kid goes quiet – like one does when the closest thing you’ve got to a family sells you up the river. Gabe’s not unsympathetic. He might clean up okay, actually; he’d shown some serious skills out there, and probably could have gotten away if he hadn’t been quite as outnumbered. He’ll let him stew on it a little while, think about how much life he’s got left to spend behind bars, then call into base tonight to clear it with Jack and try pitching it to him in the morning.

He doesn’t get the chance. A much larger and more formidable Deadlock crew stages a counter-raid in the wee hours of the night. They’ve _just_ managed to get the team equipped and out the door when Gabe notices their jury-rigged brig has been busted open. So much for his new prospect, then.

But then the door to the storeroom gets kicked open with an unceremonious clatter. He sees the moon glint off the barrel of a gun he’d thought he did a _much_ better job securing than that when he confiscated it the day before.

About ten seconds later, he abruptly realizes that the scraggly kid they’d picked up was not, in fact, “the new guy”. Nor was he, in any way, shape, or form, interested in remaining affiliated with Deadlock.

“Three hots and a cot, and your record gets wiped,” he tells him the next morning, over a cup of coffee scalding hot enough to mask how shitty it is. “A decent personal stipend, and I’ll personally guarantee you right of first refusal the next time we have to tango with these jackasses.”

The kid takes a long drag from his mug, and manages a tight, dark little smile. “ _Sold_.”


	2. We Do What We Do (Junkrat & Roadhog)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Very, very brief mention of could-have-been-but-wasn't injury to children.

“It ain’t fuckin’ _right!”_ Jamie kicked an empty crate once full of bomb casings across the room, shoulders heaving with his frantic breaths. Mako slouched into the battered remains of what had once been an easy chair.

“I know. _I know_. We do what – what all the fuck we do, I know! None of that’s _right_ , fuck, but. But there’s a _line!”_ He was pacing the room helplessly, his hands jittery.

“There is.”

Jamie jolted a bit at hearing Roadhog actually _respond_. He tended to settle down and let Jamie go when he got like this; when he did speak it was almost always to shut him up. Sometimes to redirect his attention back to what they’d been talking about initially. But _never_ to agree.

It took him a second to recover himself. “Right! You go where the money is, you look out for number one. You can’t be nice to everybody, cause that’s how you fuckin’ _die_.” His pacing was becoming more frantic, his path careening around the abandoned storefront where they’d been hiding out for the job. “But that doesn’t mean you can just – just kill _whoever_ willy-nilly just because they happen to be in the _way_ – I mean I’m not saying I know where the line _is_ –”

“Yeah, you do.” Hog’s voice was flatter than Jamie had heard it in a long time. He was staring into the distance; Jamie could almost tell the difference, how blank his stare was, even with his mask still on. “We both do.”

Jamie took a deep breath, finally slumping against the wall. “They were babies,” he mumbled, staring awkwardly into the space a few feet ahead of him. “They – they wanted _us_ to – fuck, Hog, they were just fuckin’ _babies…”  
_

There was a long moment of quiet as Roadhog leaned back and pulled his mask off. His gaze didn’t move, fixed on the empty wall ahead of him. “So were you.”

The silence was thick, heavy, and Jamie was just about to break it when his friend spoke again, his voice grown softer. “So were mine.”

Right. _That_. They’d had this conversation exactly once and he’d been ordered to forget it ever happened under penalty of extremely slow castration. But fuck him running, right, if fucking Mako was going to go _there_ then it was perfectly normal for Jamie to be right _messed up_ about all this.

“I just. We have to go. We have to _go_ , we took their money and we didn’t do the thing, and we lied to the bloke in the hat about it too, and he might actually be bright enough to realize that that was us double-crossing him and then changing our minds halfway through instead of just bein’ real bad at what he hired us for.”

“But you don’t want to just go.”

Jamie closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The usual manic buzz faded for a moment, and he was a little dazed to suddenly be alone with his thoughts.

“Mate, do you ever… just. Just feel like you have to do something? You don’t want to, you are straight up completely aware that it is a _dumb arsed idea_ that might get you killed, but you just. You _have_ to. Because something’s just that _wrong_ and it just… it _can’t_ be. Like the whole world is fuckin’ wrong and you just. You have to fix it or everything’s going to fall apart.”

Mako didn’t reply immediately, taking a few deep breaths before looking back over at Jamie. “I know where they camped.”

Jamie shook his head briefly, rattling the thoughts out of his mind. “Oh well that’s good, we just drive full bore in completely the opposite direction–”

“Not them. The other ones. Bloke in the hat and his friends. Just a couple hours out.” He stood up slowly. “They came here to stop the other guys. If we want to stop them too, seems like a good place to start.”

“Mate, did you miss the part where we literally just _double-crossed them for money?_ Money which _we still have?_ ”

Mako picked up his mask. “You saw him. He’s no suit. He talked to us like he’s talked to people like us before. Better than just following them around ourselves and having _both_ of them try to kill us.”

Jamie took a breath and ran one hand through his hair. “Right. Right, makes perfect sense, best be careful or someone’ll start thinking _you’re_ the brains of this operation, ey?” He flashed a manic grin, a bit of his sense of self finally beginning to return. “So we head out right before sunup, hopefully catch up to Hat Bloke and company, and see about offering our services to help blow the literal worst fuckers on the planet _off_ the planet.”

Roadhog nodded slightly, and Jamie beamed. Yet another crisis averted through the power of his quick logical thinking. Having finished with that, he began digging around in his knapsack for his tea set for a celebratory cuppa.

He was still trying to get the burner to light when he heard Mako’s voice again. “Conscience.”

Jamie looked up. “Wozzat, ‘og?”

“That’s what that thing is called. Where you have to do the thing. It’s your conscience.”

Jamie snorted. “Well, whatever it is, hopefully we can blow these buggers up and it’ll go away, ‘cause it’s the fuckin’ _worst_.”


End file.
